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Happy to report I’ve been very busy with the musics this year. Here’s the run down on what’s out, what’s coming out and what’s in the works so far this year.

After 3 trips to St. Louis followed by mixing in Brooklyn at Cowboy Technical Services there’s a new Bottle Rockets record ready to go for the fall. This will be the 6th record I’ve produced for the band and it marks the first time in their 20 year career that they have recorded in their hometown. The record will be released by the great folks at Bloodshot Records and it will be available on CD, Vinyl and Super Hi Res 192 Digital Download.

I’ve recently completed a record for Jack Grace titled “Everything I Say Is A Lie” with his great band and some awesome guests including The Nora Jones. This one should be available very soon. I got to play a lot of guitar on it. You can check Jack’s site for details plus here’s a scoop video for the song “Kanye West (I Hear That You’re The Best)

I’ve done some recordings for Neuroscientist Joe LeDoux and his band the Amygdaloids. Their latest is an EP that goes along with Joe’s upcoming book titled Anxious to be released in June.

A while back I met this raucous band of Notre Dame Alums called The Surreal McCoys. Their new one called “The Howl & The Growl comes out any day now. The band is spread out all over the country from DC to LA with bases in Indiana and the awesome Traverse City, MI but when they get together a big noise happens. I bet you are gonna like it.

The germination of the followup to the Del-Lords 2013 re-emergence “Elvis Club” has also begun. The band is all healed up and ready to go. We are attempting to re-schedule our return to Scandinavia this September and I’m sure we’ll play at least a couple/few northeast dates after we get back.

While I was working with the awesome Boston band Girls Guns & Glory I was lucky enough to be on their record release gig with the band and their friend Sarah Borges. We were all together on stage for an encore when Sarah took the wheel for a couple tunes. It took just seconds for her natural bandleader thing knock me sideways. Fast forward to this year. We have just started a record together in Brooklyn that we’ll probably do over the course of a few sessions with my guys Phil Cimino and Brett Bass. We’ve got 3 songs done so far and I can’t wait to get working on the next batch.

As I’m writing this I’m finishing the mixing for Esquela’s 3rd record titled Obey The Party. The band keeps getting wilder with their crazy ‘ripped from the headlines’ songs.

I played guitar on the latest Jimbo Mathus release from Fat Possum Records. Here’s the title cut Blue Healer. You can’t say I don’t use some reverb now and then.

The big news is that when I met Jimbo Mathus in 2012 to start working on the record that would become “White Buffalo” I knew I’d made a real connection. While we were making the record the lightbulb that popped on above my head told me “If I make another record for myself I gotta get Jimbo to produce”. Well, that’s happening. We’ll be mixing in a couple weeks and I’ll be very happy to reveal the details on my first record in over 11 years very soon.

****I’ll be performing at Twangfest in St. Louis on June 13th at Off Broadway. It’s a special night with Jimbo Mathus, myself and the Bottle Rockets. My special band for the night will include Jimbo, Bottle Rockets bass player Keith Voegele and long time cohort Phil Cimino on the drums.

I appreciate all the kind words about Joan Jett & The Blackhearts getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. As the guitar player in the original barnstorming band that played every little club in the country I’m very excited for them. There have been a lot of guys who have contributed to the Blackhearts legacy since Gary Ryan, Danny O’brien and I answered the add in the LA Weekly that said “Joan Jett is looking for 3 good men”. Before forming the Blackhearts with Joan the three of us had already been a band for a while playing with both Rik L Rik and Top Jimmy in Los Angeles.

I’m very lucky that Kenny Laguna became involved in Joan Jett & The Blackhearts and convinced us, after we’d been to London and Holland, to move from Hollywood to New York City. Kenny took us to see both the Mets and the Yankees the first week we were here and told us we needed to “pick a team”. In New York City the band found the lovely and deeply missed late Lee Crystal to play drums and we also got to work with songwriting legend and producer Ritchie Cordell.

I learned quickly that you could do more in a day in New York than you could in a week in LA. As a guy from Batavia, Illinois I’ve always felt welcome in NYC and it was Joan who brought me here.

Joan’s better than almost anyone knows. I never saw her do less than a kick ass show from our first month-long Tuesday residency at the Whiskey A Go Go to the last gig I played with her opening for Alice Cooper at the Cape Cod Coliseum. Of all the people I’ve ever played with only Dan Baird has the kind of rock solid immovable rhythm guitar clock that Joan does. You can build a fortress on the foundation she lays down with her right hand.

Every year the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts a band that has had more than a few members over the years. The committee picks the version of the band that gets inducted. That’s just how it works. The band they went with didn’t include me. I’m fine with that. The people who saw the original band criss cross the USA booked by Ian Copeland’s fledgling agency FBI at a lot of clubs that never even had an original band before knew they witnessed a real force of nature. Those original fans became a family that got larger as Joan’s music reached more people. I’m not alone in the alumni column. There’s a lot of great guys who came through the band after me that won’t have to buy a new suit either. Kasim Sultan, Kenny Aronson, Thommy Price and Tony Bruno are a few. Thommy Price is still playing with Joan.

Again, I’m very thankful for the start in music that I got with Joan. I’m not sure I ever would have moved to NYC where I started the Del-Lords with Scott Kempner, Frank Funaro and Manny Caiati, began my producing career which would eventually have me working with great people like Nils Lofgren, The Bottle Rockets, Jimbo Mathus, Blue Mountain, Ryan Adams, Mojo Nixon, Spanking Charlene and Freedy Johnston. I’ve toured and or recorded with lots of great people including Steve Earle & The Dukes also playing on his Grammy winning record The Revolution Starts…Now in 2005. I’ve been a member of the Yayhoos with Dan Baird, Terry Anderson and Keith Christopher. Had my own band Roscoe’s Gang and made some solo records including one with the undisputed king of recording in Springfield, MO the late great Lou Whitney. I own and operate a recording studio (Cowboy Technical) in Williamsburg Brooklyn with my partner Tim Hatfield and also had a great bar called the Lakeside Lounge (1996-2012) in the East Village with my partner “The Hound” Jim Marshall.

And on top of all that I once played “Rebel Rebel” with Joan and the Coasters on a pier on the west side of Manhattan.

So, I’m not gonna be getting cut off on tv saying thanks in my new suit. As the original guitar player in Joan Jett & The Blackhearts I’m saying thanks here now to Joan Jett, Kenny Laguna, Danny, Gary & Lee and I’m saying thanks to all of you too.

2014 has seen a lot guitar sessions too including tracks for The Gang produced by Jono Manson, the single for DL Marble’s upcoming release “Drag Me Back” and Jimbo Mathus‘ latest “Dark Night of The Soul”.

I had much fun performing with Spanking Charlene, Los Dudes, Mark McKay and Jimbo Mathus & The Tri-State Coalition this year.

2015 is going to bring more great new music from the Del-Lords and also the first new Eric Ambel release since 2004’s Knucklehead to be produced by the very awesome Jimbo Mathus.

The hardest part of all this year was loosing my mentor, friend, life coach and guru the incomparable Louis B. Whitney. I’ve never known a more giving person. Lou carried a spark that could never be extinguished. Lou will be missed every day as I work the path that I learned from him and with those thoughts I think of all the other lives he touched and his lovely wife and Honey Bunny Kay Tolliver Whitney. RIP Lou.

Lou Whitney at Column One in Springfield, MO during the recording of “Roscoe’s Gang”

First up is “Volume One” by Sad Bastards of Brooklyn. 12 songs recorded one evening at Cowboy Tech with Mario Viele engineering with Charlene McPherson and Mo Goldner (vocals and guitar respectively) from the band Spanking Charlene. This is one of the most simple yet elegant recordings I’ve ever had the good fortune to be involved in. “Volume One” is available now at Bandcamp (where you can listen to the entire record) and iTunes.

Sad Bastards of Brooklyn “Volume One”

Next up is the fiery new rock and roll record titled “Good Luck” from Boston’s #1 Alt. Country band Girls Guns and Glory. Recorded at Cowboy Tech over a couple long weekends and mixed at Evie’s in Clinton Hill we went for bringing out elements of the band’s live sound and highlighting the interplay between Ward Hayden’s voice and Chris Hersch’s guitar. “Good Luck” is available on CD and Vinyl from the band’s website.

the first Del-Lords full length in over 20 years is not out till May 14th but you can get it at all the digital joints including Bandcamp (where you can listen to the whole thing if you like). Bandcamp release includes a pdf of the album art and all of the credits. The actual CD is now available at the Del-Lords site. Shipping as of today, April 10 (big secret). Jump on it! There is rock and roll within. Keep an eye on the Del-Lords site or join the Del-Lords Facebook Group for more info and what not. Made in Brooklyn.

First 2013 news blurt: New Del-Lords record titled “Elvis Club” will be released on GB Music May 14. It has been a long time coming and all of us are excited about the release.

The Eric Ambel produced Jimbo Mathus record “White Buffalo” was just released by Fat Possum Records and it’s available as a cd, download or vinyl LP. Super excited about Jimbo’s new record. I am sure you will dig it.

Jimbo & Roscoe at the White Water Tavern in Little Rock, AR

In the Studio: The 2nd Esquela record which was recorded up in Bovina, NY and mixed at Evies is ready for mastering. Ambel is in the final mix stage of the upcoming Los Dudes “Hipster Retirement Home”, Karen Hudson‘s “Sonic Bloom” and a record for Ellen Foley.

Plenty of guitar gigs coming up with Chris Berardo & The DesBerardos and also the Mark McKay Band. Keep an eye on the Gigs page for the latest.

Had a great time playing gigs this year with the Desberardos, Mark McKay and Spanking Charlene. Highlight had to be the great tour of Iraq with Mary Lee’s Corvette.

Also almost ready for 2013 are the new Los Dudes record, an album by Karen Hudson the follow up to “The Owl Has Landed” from Esquela and a wild one from Chris Berardo & the DesBerardos. Gigs with the Desberardos, Mark McKay and the great tour of Iraq with Mary Lee’s Corvette.

Thanks to all the friends, bands and staff who supported the Lakeside Lounge (’96-2012). I miss you all more than I can say.

The Del-Lords played the benefit for Mark Spencer’s Tape Kitchen in Brooklyn on Dec 11, 2012